Yet do we not see enough to make us start back from it with horror? Sin diseases the spirit; it perverts the affections ;-and under its full dominion, those merciless tormentors, anger, malice, envy, ungratified desire, mortified pride, reign uncontrolled.

We all know that a diseased or deranged state of nature's elements produces frightful destruction. It causes the atmosphere, the universal minister of life, to become the minister of death to all living things. It converts the ocean to flaming fire; it explodes the world. Disease or derangement in our bodies, may be the occasion of instant death, or of sufferings as prolonged as life. But of all God's works, none is made with such delicate skill as the immortal soul;—and the more delicate the object, the greater the misery of its abuse. There is more pain in a diseased eye, than in For the same reason there is more

a coarser organ.

pain in the spirit, when diseased, than in a physical member. Under the disease of sin, the soul's affections are out of harmony with the eternal laws and relations of its being. That soul was made to glorify God and enjoy him forever. Sin dethrones God from the heart, perverts the will, and introduces a lawless anarchy. In the soul of the abandoned sinner, this anarchy yields its entire measure of unalloyed wo. Then there is the pain of remorse. It is by many supposed that this will be the principal suffering of the lost sinner. Perhaps no agony is more intolerable. A wounded spirit who can bear? It has no apology, excuse, or mitigation, from within; no compassion,

from without. The sufferer is his own destroyer, his own accuser, his own tormentor.

The sinner will not only depart, and depart accursed, but into "fire." This language may be figurative, but we are to remember that figurative language has a meaning, that no scriptural figure is unimportant or intended to be thrown away; and that, consequently, when Christ warns us of the quenchless fires of hell, he designs to admonish us that there is that to the lost soul in hell, which natural fire is to the body;-that there is a spiritual fire, or fire in the spirit, which is never quenched. What can this be, if it be not the burning, withering sensation of those accumulated tormentors which gather about a defeated, fallen, abandoned spirit, and a remorseful conscience?

4. A MISERABLE SOCIAL AND RELATIVE STATE. The place to which the wicked will be exiled, is that prepared for the devil and his angels. And the revelator describes it as a place of dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.* The power of the social principle, for good or for evil, for happiness or for misery, is very great. By being placed in the relation of proximity, companionship, community of interests, men may immeasurably increase their mutual welfare or wo. As the bliss of heaven, on the one hand, will thus be greatly augmented, so will the misery of hell, on the other. The wicked derive some pleasure from association here, but they will not be

*Rev. xxii. 15.

able so to do hereafter. In hell they will meet, not as cheered on in their impious ways with gratified desires and bright anticipations, but as defeated, fallen, miserable beings, to criminate each other's guilty agency and augment each other's wo.

How intolerable to souls in perdition must be the eye of that ruined being near them, who, but for their guilty agency, might have been in heaven. How appalling for sinners who have been instrumental in each other's ruin, to meet each other, recognize and be recognized as mutual destroyers, and be compelled to spend their eternity together helpers of each other's misery, as they had been helpers of each other's sin.

The Scriptures represent not only the society, but all the objects to which the wicked will hereafter be put in relation, as ministering to their misery. Darkness, prisons, chains, fire and brimstone, the undying worm, are among the terrible agents which the Holy Ghost has selected as ministering to the woes of the wicked. It would seem, then, that all the laws and elements of nature, as well as those of the moral world, will be charged with a dreadful commission respecting them. They will all be charged to dry up every source of delight, and open on their souls the streams of avenging justice. No longer will their eyes be permitted to look forth upon smiling fields, and bright suns, and enchanting prospects;-no longer will they luxuriate on the bounties of indulgent heaven ;-no longer will they walk at large, and call themselves the world's freemen ;-of all this a sad reverse will come ! Nature will be hung in blackness; creation will have

INGS.

lost every charm; heaven will have withheld every
blessing, and the fires of perdition will have consumed
the last drop of happiness in their wretched hearts.
5. Loss oF THE APPROBATION OF ALL GOOD BE-
There is a principle in man, which gives him
pleasure when he gains the approbation of the wise
and good, and corresponding pain when he forfeits it.
This is a mighty principle in moral government, and
on none does the Almighty seem more to rely. So
strongly did the psalmist feel its power, that he said to
him, "Thy favor is life, thy loving kindness is better
than life." It is the operation of this principle, that
has ever made considerate men prize the approbation
and deprecate the displeasure of God above all other
things. The lost sinner will see, in the judgment day,
that he has forfeited the approbation of God; and as
beyond that decisive day the judgment of God will
become the judgment of all good beings, he will also
have lost their approbation. He will thus become an
alien and outcast from all good society. His allotment
will be with dogs and sorcerers and every description
of ruined character. Were he permitted to wander up
and down the universe, he would never find a solitary
good being to take him by the hand and bestow upon
him a smile of complacent love. He will thus be
compelled to feel, wherever he may go, that he is lost
to the universe, and that the universe is lost to him!

6. ALL THIS TO LAST FOREVER. The crowning wo of the wicked will be its immortality. The thought that it will never end, will fill up the cup of despair. We can endure almost any misery, however intense,

for a few moments;-but even a moderate pain, continued for days and months, becomes intolerable. What then must be the feelings of the lost soul, when he reflects that the miseries of his condition will nevernever-end! Could he look forward to the remotest period which imagination can reach, and descry the least gleam of hope, there would be some alleviation— at least a drop of water to cool his burning tongue. But no-all in prospect is midnight darkness.

"Deep horrors fill his dismal home,
And hope shall never enter there!"

Here we stop. While fidelity commands us to say all that is revealed, wisdom forbids us to say more. On such a theme, our words should be few, cautious, and well chosen. For aught that we know, we may be describing our own doom. At any rate, we are describing the doom of human beings-beings allied to us by all the tender ties of a common nature—and beings whose welfare or wo ought to be as dear to us as

our own.

But there are some words of improvement furnished by this subject, which must not be lost.

The subject shows us the dreadful evil of sin. There are two ways by which, principally, we learn the evil of sin ;-the one, by looking at the cross of Christ, the other, by looking at the woes of perdition. The Bible directs us to both. The one reminds us what sin has done and would do; the other, what it will do. Sin has made the Son of God exceedingly miserable; it will make the impenitent sinner not less miserable.